In-line roller skates, often referred to as roller blades, are an extremely popular skate that offers the skater both speed and maneuverability. A typical roller blade has either four or five polyurethane wheels linearly aligned and mounted within a wheel frame. The wheel frame can be attached to a variety of different boot types depending upon the needs of the skater. Attached to the boot and/or skate frame is a toe stop, heal stop, or both. Uses of roller blades range from simple recreational skating to professional roller hockey.
As roller blade use has increased, so have the demands placed on the skate assembly. For example, free-style skaters perform difficult skating maneuvers or ticks on both flat and sloping surfaces. One of the more demanding users of roller blades is the roller hockey goaltender or goalie. Both professional and amateur goalies require not only the ability for linear motion, i.e., movement in forward and backward directions, but also the ability for lateral motion, i.e., side-to-side movement. One measure of a goalie's effectiveness is how quickly he or she can move side-to-side, thus indicating how well the goalie can guard the goal. An unfortunate side effect of this lateral motion, even for goalies using state-of-the-art roller hockey skates, is that goalies are constantly twisting their knees, leading to frequent knee injuries.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,949 discloses an in-line skate designed to provide the skater with the ability to easily move in a direction other than forward or backward. The disclosed system utilizes a steering mechanism that allows the individual rollers to curve to the right or left, depending upon whether the skater shifts their body weight to the right or left, respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,052 discloses an in-line skate that can be used to skate forward, backward, or sideways. The disclosed skate can also turn right, turn left, or spin. The skate uses a composite belt that wraps around all of the in-line wheels similar to the caterpillar treads used on a tractor or military tank. The composite belt is comprised of a resilient belt, string, and beads.
From the foregoing, it is apparent that an in-line roller skate that allows the skater an increased range of motion, in particular side-to-side motion, is desired. The present invention provides such a skate.